Fendi

Fendi was established in Rome on August 18, 1925 by Adele Casagrande and Edoardo Fendi, opening a small fur and leather goods workshop on Via del Plebiscito. The proposition was straightforward, hand-finished leather goods and furs made using Selleria stitching taught to the couple by the Eternal City’s master saddlers.

After Edoardo’s death in 1954, the five daughters Anna, Carla, Franca, Alda, and Paola began working for the family business, each taking responsibility for a specific aspect, and the boutique on Via Piave became a popular destination for tourists in Rome. Within the trade, Fendi was understood first as a Roman furrier and saddler, an artisan house before it was a fashion label.

Menswear arrived later and was shaped largely by one person. Silvia Venturini Fendi launched the secondary line Fendissime in 1987, managed shows and promotional activity, and since 2000 has been the designer for the menswear collections.

The design language pulls from the house’s leather tradition, the Selleria Line, made of unique items in Roman leather, retrieving the tradition of Roman master saddlers, and extends it into tailoring that favors lightweight construction, reversible workwear, and outerwear that blends suede, shearling, and cotton thread.

Recent collections have shown roomy trucker jackets and pants in ivory white canvas, alongside intricately woven overcoats blending suede, leather, shearling and cotton threads, and jewel-toned reversible workwear, diagonal quilting on silk jacquard separates, and inside-out tailoring with deconstructed panels that expose padded FF-monogrammed linings.

Where Giorgio Armani treats menswear as soft tailoring and Brioni as Roman bespoke, Fendi sits closer to the artisan-workshop end of the Italian spectrum, closer in spirit to Bottega Veneta’s leather-first logic than to a tailoring house.

The ownership and creative structure have shifted substantially. Fendi was a family-controlled company until 1999, when Prada and LVMH joined to buy 51 percent of Fendi for $545 million, and in 2001, LVMH acquired a controlling stake.

Karl Lagerfeld held the role of creative director from 1965 until his death on February 19, 2019, the longest designer-house collaboration in fashion history. From September 2020, the women’s collections were entrusted to Kim Jones, former stylist for the Dior men’s collection, who was appointed artistic director of couture and womenswear, with his debut collection for fall-winter 2021.

Jones remained at the helm until 2024, after which Silvia once again oversaw womenswear alongside her work in menswear and accessories, and in 2025 Fendi celebrated its centennial, with Silvia Venturini Fendi transitioning into the role of honorary president, with the appointment of Maria Grazia Chiuri as chief creative officer.

Today, the menswear dresses a customer who wants Roman leatherwork and Milan-show tailoring in the same wardrobe, and Fendi sits inside LVMH as one of its Italian leather-and-fur houses, distinct from Louis Vuitton’s scale and from Loro Piana’s fabric focus.